The reason the New York Giantsthrew rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart into the fire this quickly is obvious to anyone paying attention. Much-maligned head coach Brian Daboll is trying desperately to save his job by tying himself to the hopeful developmental success story of a young quarterback. For now, Daboll remains employed, but it’s to be determined whether his gambit will work out in the long run.
The main story, for the time being, is Dart’s progress through two starts as an NFL quarterback. And especially as he gets set to face the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night. Dart didn’t light up the scoreboard against the Los Angeles Chargers in a Week 4 win, but he didn’t exactly lose the Giants the game, either. There’s not much more you could ask for from a literally first-time starter.
By that same token, Dart was awful in a Week 5 loss to the New Orleans Saints. Dart threw two picks and averaged just five yards per pass attempt against a mediocre Saints defense on paper. That, to put it lightly, is fine for now, but won’t be good enough if Dart wants to remain the Giants’ starting quarterback for years to come.
This all begs the question: Has Dart been meaningfully different from Daniel Jones so far?
If we’re talking about the New York version of Jones, the two players are probably pretty similar. Both have decent legs when scrambling. Both have decent arm strength. But both also aren’t very accurate, are very screen-reliant, and seem prone to boneheaded mistakes at the worst possible time. The good news is that this description only applies to Dart after a couple of starts, not several years like it did for Jones.
However, if we’re comparing current Dart to the Indianapolis Colts version of Jones, it’s not even close. Jones is playing like an MVP candidate for the Colts this year. Dart, meanwhile, might be the next unfortunate victim of an incompetent organization’s planning or lack thereof.
It’s way too early to make any definitive judgments on Dart. But he still needs to do some work to really separate himself from any comparisons to Jones.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jaxson Dart: Why Giants rookie QB might be different from Daniel Jones
